Two Years After Emerging

If you have been reading me for any length of time, you will remember that, back when I was in my last year of college, I did a series of posts and wrote a paper on the Emerging Church.  In particular, I focused on environmentalism as being one of the only similarities among the various flavors of emergence (you’ll have to highlight it to read it as it just so happens to be entirely in black, which is the same color as my background for some reason).  At that point, I pretty much dropped all talk of the Emerging Church from my blog.  I continued to read the books and blogs, but talking about it only garnered criticism and my wife and I being banned from a Calvinist message board for my refusal to stop studying the group.

Birds Formerly of a Feather (Going in different directions)

Is your bird feeder spurring evolutionary change? Maybe so, according to Gregor Rolshausen and three coauthors, writing in Current Biology (December 29, 2009).

Around 10 percent of Central European blackcaps fly from southern Germany to the United Kingdom every winter, lured by human-provided birdseed. The rest of these warblers head to Spain. The split migration has been going on since the 1960s, and the researchers report that the two groups have evolved differently. The UK blackcaps have rounder wings, reflecting the shorter distance they travel. And their beaks are longer and narrower, well suited to bird feeders. By contrast, the Spain-goers’ broader beaks are better for fruit trees. The ultimate result, the researchers say, may be two distinct species.
(Stephen Bates. “Findings.” The Wilson Quarterly Winter 2010: 13)

Addiction: Intervention

“…Tell me, do you intend to give up gambling?”

“Oh, damn! I shall give it up at once as soon as I…”

“As soon as you have won back what you have lost.  Just what I thought; you needn’t say any more – I know – you have spoken unawares, and so have spoken the truth.  Tell me, have you any occupation except gambling?”

“No, none…”

He began cross-examining me.  I knew nothing.  I scarcely looked into the newspapers, and had literally not opened a single book all that time.

“You’ve grown rusty,” he observed.  “You have not only given up life, all your interests, private and public, the duties of a man and a citizen, your friends (and you really had friends) – you have not only given up your objects, such as they were, all but gambling – you have given up your memories.  I remember you at an intense and ardent moment of your life; but I am sure you have forgotten all the best feelings you had then; your dreams, your most genuine desires now do not rise above pair, impair, rouge, noir, the twelve middle numbers, and so on, I am sure!…Yes, you have destroyed yourself.  You had some abilities, a lively disposition, and were not a bad fellow; you might have even been of service to your country, which is in such need of men, but – you will remain here, and your life is over.”
(Fyodor Dostoyevsky.  The Gambler.  Dover Publications: New York.  1996.  112-116)

While admitting to an addiction may the hardest step for the addict, intervention may be the hardest step for the individuals closest to the one addicted.  There are many reasons for this, but I think that the best reason is that our desire is mainly to help the individual.  No matter what it takes, we want to see the person freed from that which is destroying them inside and out.  The husband doesn’t leave his addicted wife because he feels that he must stay in the relationship to show they are not abandoning them and show that they love her.  The mother of the addicted son can’t kick him out of her house because it is akin to throwing them to the wolves, and they may be devoured, and no parent want to see their child in that predicament.  It goes on and on, but the underlying desire is the same: we want to help.

Oh, Jesus….

When I go to church and am listening to the sermon, I have this bad habit of reading the passage being preached from.  I know, I know.  I should just turn off my brain, go into a meditative state and just accept the message being given.  But sometimes I can’t.  Sometimes something in the passage just catches my eye and my mind immediately latches on and I can’t let go of it.  That is what happened this morning as the guest speaker was sharing from the parable of the good Samaritan.

Addiction

***I have been doing a lot of research lately in regards to the topic of addiction in light of some issues that have been going on at home.  I am not going to go into details, and I am not trying to air dirty laundry.  But this is something that, I think, especially as Christians, we need to take some time to think about and discuss.  The topic is real and hits home with probably the majority of the people who make up our congregations.  So, over the next few days, I am going to share some thoughts that I have on this topic.  May God guide us in dealing with this very real and very challenging issue.***

Heard At the Men’s Group Meeting Friday

Someone mentioned this during the men’s group from church on Friday morning, and I just had to share it.

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor person in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the one wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the one who is poor, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?  Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong? (James 2:1-7 TNIV)

But we must be careful not to apply what is here said to the common assemblies for worship; for in these certainly there may be appointed different places of persons according to their rank and circumstances, without sin. – Matthew Henry

Way to read your Bible, buddy.

What Would Christ Think of Black Friday?

This is a passage from the email newsletter I get from a United Church of God (yes, that is that heretical group that brought us the likes of Herbert W. Armstrong) publication called “Good News Magazine.”  They have some pretty nutty ideas about some stuff, but sometimes they say some things that are so right on that I have to stop and listen.  This isn’t the whole of the newsletter.  I stop before they go into their rant about how all holidays are pagan in nature and ways the devil has deceived us into worshiping him when we should be worshiping God.  Still, though, it is hard to argue with what Clyde Kilough is saying here.

A Prayer to Destroy Obama?

In a recent article on the Sojourner’s blog, Diana Butler Bass responds to Psalm 109:8 in light of a recent bumper sticker campaign using the Psalm as a prayer about President Obama.  Psalm 109:8 reads as follows:

May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership.

More Thoughts on Tobit and the Deuterocanonical Scriptures

I, Tobit, walked in the ways of truth and righteousness all the days of my life.  I performed many acts of charity for my kindred and my people who had gone with me in exile to Ninevah in the land of the Assyrians. (Tobit 1:3 NRSV)

What we have in Tobit is the story of a gentleman who has been faithful all of his life.  He was raised a Jew, became a Jew when he reached adult age, and remained a Jew despite any trials that he may have encountered.  We will talk about how faithful he was in a moment.  For now, let it suffice to say that we have a story about a very faithful, God-fearing man.

Before we go any further, I want to make a couple of things clear.

There’s Something Missing From Our Bibles

This past week, my small group spent most of the time discussing Philippians 1:6.  I came away thinking that the basic idea of the verse is that, no matter what may be happening, God is not finished with you yet.  The verse, a much over-quoted one, says it this way:

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (ESV)

We got to talking about some Scriptural analogies for this, things like Job and some personal life experiences and I got to thinking about a little story about a man named Tobit.